CenturyLink and Calix Deliver North America’s Largest G.fast Deployment

PETALUMA, CA – September 13, 2016 – Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX), the world leader in enabling next generation service delivery with an unmatched subscriber experience, today announced that CenturyLink is leveraging the Calix AXOS G.fast solution to bring the potential for a gigabit experience to subscribers living in MDUs in Platteville, Wisconsin using existing in-building twisted pair and coaxial infrastructure. This deployment of cutting-edge G.fast technology, which now delivers CenturyLink Prism® TV and data services to over 40 MDUs spread throughout the community, is the single largest deployment in North America today, according to Erik M. Keith, principal analyst of broadband networks and multiplay services at Current Analysis. This important use case not only expands the potential G.fast deployment scenarios globally, but also is proving to have superior performance characteristics compared with deployment over traditional twisted copper pairs.

“We saw an MDU-rich college town like Platteville as an ideal proving ground for G.fast technology. It’s teeming with savvy young subscribers hungry for an outstanding broadband experience, yet residing in apartments and other dense housing environments that can be difficult to reach with powerful broadband technologies,” said Aamir Hussain, CenturyLink executive vice president and chief technology officer. “By leveraging AXOS G.fast solutions from Calix, we were able to quickly move from evaluation of this technology to scale. We are very excited to evaluate other areas of our network where we can implement this technology to accommodate the growing broadband needs of our customers.”

The Calix solution in Platteville consists of a full array of Calix software, systems, and services. The Calix 801F GigaPoint acts as the access demarcation point at the subscriber premises, terminating G.fast delivered over twisted copper pair or coaxial cable, and managed via the cloud through Calix Consumer Connect Plus software. Each GigaPoint is fed via a variety of Calix access nodes optimized for their location and role in the network – either sealed access nodes (E3-16F DPUs) that sit outside each building or E5-16F access nodes inside each building. E7-2 modular access systems in the central office leverage GPON technology to deliver services over fiber to each access node. End-to-end turn-up and provisioning is handled via the cloud through SDN-optimized Calix Activate software, which is integrated with CenturyLink orchestration software. This gigabit-capable end-to-end solution, which scaled from conception to commercial scale in a matter of months, also delivers CenturyLink Prism TV to subscribers in MDUs throughout the community.

“The CenturyLink G.fast deployment in Platteville demonstrates to the world how the promise of G.fast can be transformed into reality,” said Michel Langlois, senior vice president, systems products at Calix. “We are proud to have not only helped CenturyLink prove-in this powerful technology over both existing copper pair and coaxial infrastructure, but to have also provided the platform allowing it to scale into North America’s largest G.fast deployment in record time. MDUs are an underserved market globally, and CenturyLink is proving that service providers can leverage Calix to deliver a gigabit experience and capture the opportunity.”